Mvskoke Country began in 2009 as a monthly column on environmental issues published in the Muscogee Nation News, reprinted elsewhere, and archived here. In 2010-11, I wrote a yearlong series on the traditional Mvskoke calendar and its relationship to the natural world.

In 2011, I added a web-only feature: field notes, a weekly feed of vital insights from Mvskoke ecological knowledge. The monthly column and weekly feed went on hiatus later that year while I worked on other projects.

In 2016-17, I posted monthly found poems on human ecology drawn from interviews with mostly elderly people in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation recorded in the 1930s. Revised versions of some of these pieces, along with many newfound poems from the archive, will appear in a book titled A Sort of Strange Land: Poems Found in Indian Territory.

I am taking a break from posting vintage recipes for traditional Mvskoke dishes while I work on other projects. But I still have more than a dozen delicious foods and drinks lined up for when I return to this monthly series, so stay tuned.

Coincidentally, I just learned of the recent passing of Ben Chaney, the Mvskoke artist and publisher responsible for Hokti’s Recipe Book of Creek Indian Foods. When I tracked him down in 2011, he was managing the Department of Transportation of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and he generously allowed me to post Beulah Simms’s invaluable writings on this website. Earlier this year, at the venerable age of 76, Ben returned to work for the Nation as Secretary of Interior Affairs, overseeing thirteen departments serving MCN citizens and area residents. You can read more about his engaging personality and his many accomplishments in this obituary.

As I have mentioned before, Hokti’s Recipe Book is the most popular content ever published on Mvskoke Country, having been accessed over ten times as often as the second most popular page, a column titled What Is Mvskoke Food? Who would have guessed that Mvskoke people and their friends like to eat?! Mvto, Ben Chaney.

A peck or even more of clean, shelled flint corn is prepared for making a quantity of this bread to have on hand for several meals. The shelled corn is placed in a large vessel, covered with luke warm water and soaked over night.

The soaked corn, a portion at a time, is pounded lightly in the wooden mortar so as not to crush the grain yet loosen the hulls. Then the grain is put into a fanner and the hulls cleaned out. The clean corn is soaked another night as before.

The next step in the preparation is to pound the soaked corn in a mortar to fine meal, in which there is always a small portion of fine grits. Sift out the meal, and boil the grits down in water to a gruel thoroughly done. Mix the meal with the gruel, and place the mixture in an earthen jar holding anywhere from two to ten gallons. The jar should be placed near a fire where it can be kept warm.

The third morning the dough will be fermented a little, and ready to put into a Dutch oven to be baked very slowly, an hour or longer until done. This bread, by adding a little salt and soda to the dough before baking, will be whiter than any flour bread when cooked done, having a delicious taste actually sweet without sugar.

Next morning drip dry in a riddle or sugar sack, pound or grind into meal, mix as for corn bread with salt, soda, baking powder, and one cup of flour, pour in a jar, set in a warm place to ferment for twelve hours.

Then pour into hot greased iron kettle and bake same as corn bread.

Beulah Simms, 1970

Soak about one pound vce-cvlvtwe (flint corn) or vce-hvtke (white corn) in water until soft. It may require overnight soaking.

Pound in a keco with a kecvpe. Separate the coarser grains of corn from the fine powder. (The coarser grains may be dried and stored for later use.) Cook a thin gruel of two cups rice and while the mixture is still hot, mix with the powdered corn. Put the mixture into an earthenware crock which is large enough to allow for expansion and let set overnight in a warm room.

When you are ready to bake the bread, add one tablespoon baking powder and two tablespoons sugar and mix thoroughly. The sugar which is added gives the bread added flavor. Bake in oven as you would corn bread.

Taklike-tokse is served with meat dishes.

American Indian Recipes, 1970

Soak two gallons of cracked corn in three or four gallons of hot water over night.

Drain water from corn and beat into fine meal, the last of which will form into a coarse meal. Save as much as two quarts coarse meal and cook with the water which it was soaked in. Combine one-half cup baking soda and a little water, enough to make a thin paste, then stir into the coarse meal. When the course meal is cooked thick enough to work with, add the fine meal and stir until its a little thicker than cornbread. Put into a stone jar for it to turn sour.

Then next day add a little flour and bake as cornbread.

Native American Recipes, 1996

Combine two cups cornmeal, two cups flour, one pinch baking soda, and one pinch baking powder. Add two cups water. Let mixture stand in a warm place until it becomes bubbly, usually overnight.

Pour into a greased cast iron skillet and cook on top of the stove under low to medium heat. Serve hot.

Some batter may be saved as a starter for the next batch of bread.

Bertha Tilkens, 2004

Cornmeal, made by pounding dried corn into powder, is used to make sour cornbread. Cornmeal is mixed with water and left to sit for several days until the mixture becomes sour. This mixture is then used to make cornbread, which tastes tangy and rather sour. This bread is delicious when served with soup or meat.

“Mvskoke Traditional Foods,” 2006

Combine two cups plain white corn meal, one-and-three-quarters cups flour, one teaspoon salt, one-quarter cup sugar, one cup cooked rice, and two cups warm water. Stir together until it looks fluffy and has some bubbles in it. Then let it set in a window or somewhere for two days.

Add one tablespoon baking powder and one teaspoon baking soda, and a little water if it is too thick. Preheat oven to three-hundred-seventy-five degrees. Bake three cups of mixture in a greased skillet.

You pour water in a small pot, put the osafke corn in, add meat, cook it, and it’s called sakkonepke.

Acee Blue Eagle, 1956

Prepare one squirrel, place in pot, cover with water and cook until tender. Add four cups sofkey grits, cook together until consistency is like hominy.

Rice is sometimes used in place of sofkey grits.

Indian Recipes, 1975

Cook sofkey grits until three-fourths done. Add short ribs of beef that have been baked or browned. Let simmer until meat and sofkey grits are tender. Salt and pepper to taste.

Lois Neal, 1992

Cook cracked corn about two hours. Clean raw squirrel and cut into serving pieces. Add to hominy and cook until done. Cook about four hours, stirring often. Add salt when done.

Bertha Tilkens, 2009

Brown pig feet before placing them in a crock pot. Add two cups of hominy corn and fill the crock pot about three-quarters full with water to cover the pig feet and corn and cook until the corn is soft. To add flavor, use bacon drippings and salt to taste.

Shell black or white corn, put water in a pot to boil, set it over the fire, put in a small amount of strong ashes without any charcoal, and when it boils, put in the shelled corn, and after it boils, take out the corn, and wash it off until all the corn skin is removed.

When the same corn was boiled and cooked without grinding, grease was added, and it was called sokv and eaten.

Beulah Simms, 1970

From a wood fire, pull out one gallon of hot ashes and some small glowing embers. Put one quart white corn and the ashes into a large iron kettle. Arrange the kettle so that it is tilted to one side. It is easier to stir this way. Stir the corn and ashes over a low fire until the corn turns light tan in color. Separate the corn in a colander or a can with holes punched in the bottom. Pour water through the corn until the corn turns white and all trace of the ashes has been removed. Dry the corn and store for later use.

Boil the desired amount of corn in water for approximately one hour until thoroughly cooked. Season with lard or pieces of pork for flavor (hogshead can be used for this).

American Indian Recipes, 1970

Take a half bushel bucket of squaw corn and half bushel bucket of strong ashes, about three buckets full of water heated in wash pot and bring to a boil. Add the sifted ashes and boil briskly, adding the corn and stirring it until it’s skinned, then wash until it’s clean.

This is a large amount and can be used in different ways. Soak this overnight and cook very similar to beans. Also can be cooked together with hogshead. Another way it has been used is to cook hominy with salt pork and wild greens that Indians eat. These are the greens that are ready to eat right after the wild onions are gone.

Native American Recipes, 1996

Add enough water to cover one quart wood ashes and bring to boil. Add one gallon shelled corn and bring back to boil. Boil for one-half hour stirring often. Pour out ashes and water. Rinse corn thoroughly four to five times in different water each time.

Pour corn into clean pot, cover with water or broth from soup bone and cook until corn is done. Serve warm.

Indian Territory: A Cookbook of the Early Years, 1998

Boil two quarts dried shelled corn, two gallons water, and two ounces lye in iron cooking pot for thirty minutes. Set off and let sit for thirty minutes to cool.

Rinse in cold water and remove skin and eyes. Put back in clean pot, add clean water and bring to boil, cook for five minutes. Empty. Repeat this two more times to remove all the lye.

After last bath, cook again for thirty minutes.

Creek Muscogee Recipes, Cooking Tips and Lore, 1999

A traditional method for preparing hominy is to take clean wood ashes (hardwoods such as oak or hickory are best) sifted and put into an iron kettle (aluminum is never used for making hominy). Cover wood ashes and dried corn, removed from the cob, with water and boil until the skin slips off the corn. Wash the skins and ashes away with plenty of fresh water.

After paring, grate three raw potatoes. To one quart of grated potatoes, add one-and-a-half tablespoons flour, teaspoon of sugar, pinch of black pepper, mix and make into small cakes. Bake as biscuits, but more slowly.

The Indian Cook Book, 1933

This bread is made by boiling sweet potatoes, then mixing with corn meal, seasoned with salt, and baking powder, if desired. Baked in a hot oven.

Beulah Simms, 1970

Select four or five medium-sized potatoes. Wash and peel. Boil in water until soft. Mash as you would in making mashed potatoes. About two tablespoons of flour may be added to hold the patties together. Cinnamon may be added for extra flavor. Add two tablespoons butter or shortening, and two tablespoons sugar. Make into small patties or biscuits. Bake as you would bake biscuits until cooked.

American Indian Recipes, 1970

Take any amount of sweet potatoes that are gritted, put in a little sugar and a little flour and roll into a biscuit from the palm of the hand. Bake in an oven.

Indian and Pioneer Cookbook, 1971

Grate two big sweet potatoes. Mix with about one-quarter cup of butter, one cup of corn meal, one tablespoon of flour, one-half cup of sugar, one teaspoon of nutmeg, and two egg yolks. Fold in two beaten egg whites. Form into pones and bake on sheets of shallow pan, an iron pan is best. Bake in a slow oven, three-hundred-fifty degrees, until done.

Cookbook of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, 1976

Scrape or peel about four medium-size potatoes. Grate and add three-quarters cup sugar, one-half teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix and form into patties and place in greased pan. Bake in oven three-hundred-seventy-five degrees for thirty minutes.

Gifts of the Earth, 1982

Cook and mash three medium-sized sweet potatoes. Combine with one-half cup hot water, one-quarter cup whole-germ cornmeal, and one tablespoon wildflower honey. Add more cornmeal if the batter is too thin to make into cakes. Heat one-half cup beef or pork fat until it sizzles. Lightly roll cakes in cornmeal and fry in the hot fat, about two minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Seminole Indian Recipes, 1996

Preheat oven to four-hundred-twenty-five degrees. Place one-and-one-quarter cups cooked and mashed yams into a bowl and set aside. In another bowl mix together two cups all-purpose flour, two teaspoons sugar, one teaspoon salt, and three teaspoons double-acting baking powder. In a measuring cup combine one-half cup vegetable oil and one-half cup milk; add to yams and blend well with a fork. Add the flour mixture and mix lightly with the fork just until the mixture holds together.

Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead for about one minute, or until the pastry is smooth and holds together. On a floured surface roll out the pastry to one-quarter inch thickness and cut with a floured biscuit cutter. Butter lightly and sprinkle baking sheet with flour. Tap baking sheet on edge of sink to get rid of excess flour. Place the rounds on the baking sheet and bake in oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. Serve hot with butter on the side. Cold cakes may be split and toasted. Makes about seventeen three-inch cakes.

Indian Territory: A Cookbook of the Early Years, 1998

Parboil four large sweet potatoes until tender; peel and mash them. Mix in three eggs, one cup flour, one-and-one-half teaspoon salt, and one-eighth teaspoon fresh ground pepper. Heat two tablespoons cooking oil. Take a scoop of potato and pat between your hands to make a patty. Put patty in oil and fry.

Creek Muscogee Recipes, Cooking Tips and Lore, 1999

Boil four large sweet potatoes until tender. When cool, peel potatoes and mash them in mixing bowl. Add three eggs, one teaspoon soda, one-and-one-half teaspoon salt, and one-eighth teaspoon fresh ground pepper, mixing into a smooth batter. Heat oiled griddle. Drop batter onto hot griddle from large spoon. Brown on both sides, flattening with spatula, to make cakes about three to four inches in diameter. Serve hot with butter.

Three quarts of hard corn, boiled half done, drain. Have a pot on the fire with two quarts of ashes, hot, put corn in and stir with wooden paddle until brown. Remove corn to a riddle and sift off all ashes, put this in mortar and pound into meal. It is then ready for use.

Two tablespoons to a cup of cold water with one teaspoon of sugar makes a delightful drink, especially for summer.

James H. Hill, ca. 1936-40

When flint corn gets ripe, before it hardens, they shell it, put ashes in a big kettle, put it on the fire with the shelled corn, parch it, dry it in a sunny place, and keep lots of it stored away.

And when they went hunting, they parched that corn again and kept it and made lots of it without grinding it and called it hockvtē (flour) and took it with them hunting. When making that kind of osafke, they called it vpvsk-osafke (parched corn osafke), or tak-vpvsk-onepke (coarse cold flour) and ate it.

They kept this same parched corn and when they passed it through a fine riddle, they sifted it and kept it very fine, mixing in water, and called it vpvske wvpaksv (swollen parched corn), mixed in lots of liquid, and if they liked it that way, they sweetened it with honey and drank it.

Acee Blue Eagle, 1956

Use roasting ears just before hardening. Break a grain to see if kernel is moist. Gather as much corn as you desire to parch. Shell corn in large pan.

Sift one-and-one-half gallons dry wood ashes into large iron kettle. Build a fire of medium heat, place kettle over it tilted at a forty-five degree angle, pour corn into the ashes and stir continually with wooden paddle until corn is brown. Remove corn and ashes, sift ashes from corn and put back into pot. Continue process until all corn is parched. Pound or grind corn into fine meal.

Take two heaping teaspoons to one glass of water, sweeten to taste, and you will have the delicious Creek Indian drink called vpvske.

Beulah Simms, 1970

Place one-half gallon vce-cvlvtwe (flint corn) into a large iron kettle and place the kettle so that it is tilted to one side. From a wood fire, remove ashes and smoldering coals and place in the kettle with the corn. With an vtapv, stir until the corn turns a toasted brown in color. Cool.

Place in a svlahwv and sift out the ashes. Wash the remaining ashes out of the corn in clear water and dry out the corn.

You may now place the corn in a clean cloth bag for storage, or, place the toasted corn in a keco and with a kecvpe pound the corn into a fine powder. Using a svlahwv, sift the fine powder from the coarser grains (vpvske nerve or vpvske wa pvkscv).

Use the powdered corn for an instant drink. Add one teaspoon of powdered corn to glass of cold water. Add sugar to taste as in a glass of iced tea. Very tasty with meat dishes. Very easy to mail to friends in distant parts of the country as a gift.

American Indian Recipes, 1970

Need half bushel bucket of half-green and dry yellow corn. A half bushel bucket of strong dry ashes sifted and put into a heated wash pot that is hot enough to scorch, adding the corn and stirring with a paddle until parched done.

Next remove the corn sifted from the ashes and then beat lightly in a mortar, removing the burned skin by putting in a pan and tossing up and down and getting it clean, and beating it while it is hot and sifted.

This makes about three pounds of fine meal and about a quart-and-a-half of coarse meal. The fine meal can be eaten with sugar and water or milk like dry cereal.

Melissa Seigfried, 1971

Parch dry yellow corn in ashes over open fire, in a big black pot. Pound or grind into fine pieces or powder. Put into large utensil. Cover with water. Stir good. Serve to drink with sugar to sweeten to taste.

Add an eight-ounce glass of water, two tablespoons vpvske, three teaspoons sugar and mix. Add ice and it is ready to drink.

Native American Recipes, 1996

Boil ten to fifteen young corn (a bit too hard for roasting ears) for about ten minutes. Cut corn off the cob and spread in the sun to dry. You can use cookie sheets for this or some other large flat utensil like pizza pans. Make sure it is protected from wind or animals while drying in the sun.

Put clean wood ashes in kettle and heat until they sizzle if a drop of water is added. Add dried corn and stir until the corn is browned. Sift to separate corn from ashes. Using keco and kecvpe grind until corn is desired consistency.

If more finely ground, add water or milk to make into a drink. Sweeten to taste if you wish, but most prefer it plain. Very nutritious.

Bertha Tilkens, 2004

To make vpvske, corn is put in a big kettle over an open fire. The corn is stirred constantly so that it does not burn but is instead parched to a brown color. The parched corn is then pounded into a very fine meal, resembling cornmeal. The pounded corn is put into an airtight container for storage. To make a drink, the vpvske meal is combined with water and a little sugar.

Dress squirrel and wash clean, place on fork or stick in front of open fire, turning often until thoroughly brown.

Squirrel soup is made by first barbecuing squirrels whole, and then cut into pieces and place in vessel of cold water. Season with salt and pepper. Boil slowly and serve as broth.

James H. Hill, ca. 1936-40

If they kill a lot of squirrels, they cooked them by boiling and ate them, but if it was just one, they singed off the hair by laying it near the fire and covered it with hot ashes, and when it was done, one person or even two used to eat it.

Even now the squirrel is still very much eaten.

Beulah Simms, 1970

Begin the cleaning of the squirrel by burning off all the hair over a direct flame. Scrape all the singed hair off. Remove skin, dress, clean, and cut into smaller pieces as you would a fryer.

If the squirrel is old, boil in salt water until it is tender.

Place about one tablespoon of lard in a frying pan and pan fry the squirrel over a low flame with the pan covered with a lid until slightly cooked. Pour in about one cup of water and simmer down until thoroughly cooked. Salt and pepper to taste.

Some Creek tribal towns traditionally have stewed squirrel dinners before the first Stomp Dance of the season and after the last Stomp Dance of the season.

American Indian Recipes, 1970

Make a fire outside with dry limbs and place the squirrel into the fire, watching it very carefully not to burn. Burn only enough to singe the hair off, scrape and put back in fire long enough to brown and brittle the skin.

Next wash and clean the squirrel, cut into pieces and cook in water. Season with salt and pork drippings and cook long enough to be real done and serve.

John Lowe, 1992

Wash the squirrel well to remove all hair or fuzz. Cut a young squirrel into serving pieces. Rub with lard and salt. Roll in flour and fry in lard until brown.

Add a few drops of water and cover. Steam for thirty minutes over a low fire. Remove squirrel from the pan and make gravy from the drippings.

Brown two tablespoons of flour in four tablespoons of the fat in which the squirrels were fried. Cover with water and let cook until it is about medium thick.

Old squirrels may be boiled until almost tender then fried in grease as young squirrels, except they are not to be rolled in flour.

Serve with biscuits or fry bread.

Seminole Indian Recipes, 1996

Cut two cleaned squirrels into serving pieces. Mix salt and pepper and one cup all-purpose flour, and dredge the squirrel pieces in the mixture.

In a large skillet, heat six tablespoons lard or bacon drippings and fry squirrel pieces, turning occasionally until golden brown. Remove squirrel from the skillet and set aside.

Pour off all fat except about three tablespoons. Add two cups water to the skillet and bring to boil. Return squirrel to the skillet; bring to boil again, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for about one and one half hours or until the meat is very tender.

Serve with corn bread.

Creek Muscogee Recipes, Cooking Tips and Lore, 1999

Cut two squirrels into serving pieces. Place flour and salt and pepper in paper bag, place squirrel in bag and shake until coated.

Fry in skillet in six tablespoons grease until golden brown, pour off excess grease and add two cups water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for one hour.